Spin: Whose 'Kryptonite' is it anyway?

There often isn't a better sight in Test cricket than watching the ball pitch in the rough, grip and turn so much as to go in the opposite direction from it's original one and in turn leave the batsman looking as awkward as a cow on ice. In the past week or so, the phrase 'spin is a dying art', has been demolished with the same amount of ease as it takes to demolish Chris Martin's stumps. With the likes of England and New Zealand succumbing to the art's power, a pertinent question that has come up, is who is the weakest against spin?

As one tries to deduce who the fattest cow is on the largest sheet of ice, a look at the numbers provides some startling and unexpected revelations. Firstly, teams are often stereotyped and put into categories. Now there are the usual suspects, this group consists of teams that don't often get to play spin and more importantly don't get to play it on spinning tracks. Teams like England, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand often come under this bracket. Then, there are those who are expected to be masters of playing the art of spin, owing to the fact that they come from sub-continent conditions that produce spinning wickets.

Starting from the 1st of January 2007, so that's a little more than half a decade, England have faced 4202 overs of spin in Tests, 38 more than India. So much for the chain of thought that teams from outside the sub-continent don't get to play much spin. Now, England have lost 332 wickets against spin in these past five years and while that number might look pretty high, it is important to note that India, known for their ability to play spin, have lost 312 wickets against spin. A difference of just 20 wickets, so is England really that bad against spin? Well, just wickets doesn't paint a complete picture. In this period of time, India have managed to score more runs than England against spin and without losing as many wickets as them. India have scored 14034 runs while England have scored 13310 runs, this means that India loses a wicket against spin every 44.9 runs and England loses a wicket every 40 runs. That difference of four, really shows how England struggle against spin.

Sure, it comes as no surprise that England aren't the best when it comes to playing spin, but are they the worst? Before cracking that nut open, it might be worthy to throw another stereotype of the window. Sub-continent teams are touted to be good players of spin, in fact India opted to play an extra pace bowler in Laxmipathy Balaji and drop Harbhajan Singh when they took on Pakistan in the World T20 2012. That was done perhaps keeping in mind that Pakistan plays spin well, or do they?

In the past five years, Pakistan has managed to score 7952 runs in Tests against spin. While one may note that they probably played less Test cricket than India or England, they still lost 252 wickets for those runs scored. So effectively Pakistan lost a wicket against spin every 31.5 runs, a number far lesser than England's or India's. In fact Pakistan's record against spin is worse than Australia's or South Africa's. Over the past five years, Australia have lost a wicket to spin every 41.5 runs and the Proteas have done the same every 42 runs. So much for sub-continent teams playing spin well.

So two stereotypes have been negated and now the time has come to brandish the team that really cannot stand spin. Now Sri Lanka is quite decent against the art, they lose a wicket only every 43 runs. West Indies has been quite poor against all forms of bowling in the last five years and hence shall be omitted from this inquiry. Bangladesh and Zimbabwe haven't played too much Test cricket and hence have been left out as well. So then, Ross Taylor should not have been shocked at his side's appalling performance against Sri Lanka in the first Test, when Rangana Herath bagged 11 wickets in the match. Why you ask? Because New Zealand has the worst record against spin, they have scored 7023 runs and have lost 241 wickets to spin, that's a wicket every 29 runs! Looks like spin well and truly is the Kiwis' 'Kryptonite.'